I must say it was a little dull early on. I suppose they have to conserve their energy on the longer stages.

I had a shower while the silly frog cooked the food. Still trying to work out if the wine expert is a pom with a French accent or a frog with a pom accent. Judging by his teeth I'm going for the former.

I set the tape but forgot there was already an hour on the tape used so I missed the last 50kms but it didn't look like an exciting finish.

I set the tape for stage two and just fitted in it by about 3 minutes. I better start making sure the tapes are rewound before I hit record.

stryker84 wrote:my TV packed it in halfway through, and I was falling asleep as well.

So I wake up, and the screen is blank and I hear this thudding/clicking noise from the TV.

Oh well, I'll wait for the highlights package.

What more excuse do you need to buy an LCD or plasma?

My wife's hoping ours will pack it in to justify the change over.

Small prob there. When you're a student with no income and got the TV free from a friend cos you couldn't afford one yourself. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous seeing as I've probably spent 10 times as much on my bike as I will on a new TV, but at least I use the bike. The TV only gets use for the Tour and other occasional sports.

On the bright side, I get to move this huge box (it is old, a CRT with preset channels and LOT of bulk, must be 25 years old at least) out of my room, and make more space for the bike.

stryker84 wrote:my TV packed it in halfway through, and I was falling asleep as well.

So I wake up, and the screen is blank and I hear this thudding/clicking noise from the TV.

Oh well, I'll wait for the highlights package.

What more excuse do you need to buy an LCD or plasma?

My wife's hoping ours will pack it in to justify the change over.

That's how I got my new tele - it certainly wasn't because I could afford one, but seeing we don't go out at all (the money goes on bikes and we watch dvds from the library ).

SBS on digital is amazing - now all I have to do is work out how to record the digital feed. Surely it can be done but at the moment, I'm still recording the old analogue feed and having watched a stage in beaut colour and clarity, it's heartbreaking to watch the blurry recording that can't decide whether it's in colour or not.

sogood wrote: Plasma is bad, very bad for the environment. It's an energy hog.

I expected my plasma to run hotter than it does after the things I'd heard about them (I bought it because it was signifcantly cheaper than an lcd equivalent).

tuco wrote:Ride to work and make up for the difference or think of it as a heater for the lounge and turn down the regular room heater thermostat.

The ride to work bit is still tricky with only one shower for over 100 of us, not to mention the suits and ties thing - but I always intended to use my plasma as a part of my heating system and I think that I do. I'd rather wear clothes and use a blanket when I'm vegging out on the couch, but I don't have a lot of success convincing my son to do the same. Maybe I need to nobble all of the heaters!

tuco wrote:Ride to work and make up for the difference or think of it as a heater for the lounge and turn down the regular room heater thermostat.

Now that's practical thinking. But hey, why would you need a heater up in Townsville?

Seriously though. Recently I read somewhere (?SMH) that those plasma TVs are now turning into the major energy burner in households, bumping up electricity bills by up to 35%. All at a time when other electrical appliances are getting more energy efficient.

I agree Richard, it did get a triffle boring watching the same ads over, and over, and over. The second breakaway was well executed. Pity they couldn't hold it together at the finish.

I couldn't believe how slow they were going! Reprts stated they were about 60 minutes behind schedule. So Tuco, you need to allow for at least an additional hour at the end of the scheduled finish time.

One question - Why don't SBS show the entire race? We always seem to start the coverage with between 120 to 150 km to go. Be nice to see the whole thing just once.

I can understand them not showing the whole stage in prime time tele - not enough happens typically. Even multiple mountain stages generallydon't have a real lot happening early on as the big names haunt each other until the final climb, that's assuming someone isn't trying to break his opponents, which I think is what is going to have to happen this year (anyone strong enough to do it?).

Interestingly, we're better served than the US where you have to buy cable to get anything other than highlights packages on the weekend - we are rather lucky (for once )

SBS have a good track record of showing highlights of earlier action so I don't think we miss out on too much ... and if we are, please don't tell

Having said that, I understand your frustration and would like to watch just one leg from go to whoa one day.

I was on holiday in England last year in July and they had all of the TDF live on Channel 4. It was great for a while but you eventually start to lose interest (especially when the wife gives you a big kick and tells you to move your arse! ) I think the words were "We didn't pay all this money so you could watch cycling on TV! You could have done that in Perth".

I didn't think it appropriate at the time to point out that SBS is only showing limited highlights and therefore I couldn't have done this in Perth!

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